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For someone with a record, navigating the court system to remove a past drug conviction is hard, given how differently each city and county handles it.

But it's even more difficult for those still incarcerated.

Multimedia Journalist Jaelynn Grisso has more.

The first years following the Blake decision saw a large push to vacate convictions for folks who were incarcerated and would have their sentence changed because of the cleared conviction.

In fact, according to the Office of Public Defense, no one is currently incarcerated for only felony drug possession.

But the Department of Corrections said there are about 4,000 people serving time for other charges who also have drug convictions that could be vacated.

The biggest barrier that incarcerated clients have to getting this relief is access to the court system.

They don't have a computer that they can file.

Everything that they want to present is handwritten.

And they also don't have access to the processes and understanding how each jurisdiction wants these cases filed.

Each jurisdiction also handles Blake cases differently, which leads to vastly different outcomes throughout the state.

Vacating these convictions wouldn't change the sentence and most of the cases left, but clearing those past charges still matters.

A lot of the people who we work with are really, like, trying to make their lives better.

When somebody is able to have that removed from their record and no longer be criminalized for a disease or disorder that they're suffering from, It makes a really big impact.

Jaelynn Grisso, Cascade PBS I'm Paris Jackson.

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Go to CascadePBS.org for more.